Halliburton unit preferred for MoD bid

An arm of Halliburton, the controversial group led until 2000 by American vice-president Dick Cheney, yesterday emerged as the preferred bidder for a contract worth £350m over seven years to coordinate logistics support for British troops on overseas missions.

Kellogg Brown & Root, which is already providing support services for the army in the Gulf and is operator of Devonport naval dockyard in Plymouth, was named late last month as preferred bidder for a £4bn contract to upgrade garrisons in Aldershot and on Salisbury Plain.

The Ministry of Defence said the new contract - which is to identify and assess commercial suppliers of items such as food and tents for its permanent joint headquarters - had a core annual value of £12m, but that this could increase to £50m.

KBR - which provoked accusations of cronyism when it was awarded an early contract to repair Iraq's oil network without competition - beat off a rival bid from a consortium of UK-based Turner Facilities Management and Dyncorp of the United States.

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